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Acquiring Hero Dice
Characters in d20 Advanced have a dice pool of hero dice which players can spend to improve the characters' abilities in various ways. You can spend a hero dice to push an ability or FX beyond its normal capabilities, bounce back from being hurt, and achieve various other effects. In addition, you can use your hero dice pool to re-roll any check. Earning Hero Dice All characters start each game with a single hero die. Characters can earn hero dice for any number of things during a game. For the most part, players should be rewarded hero dice when unforeseen complications arise to make things considerably more difficult for them. Setbacks Setbacks are when things just aren’t going the character’s way. When a character suffers a significant failure, the player gets a hero die. Generally, a “significant failure” is a failed skill check or suffering with the worst possible result of an attack: a Climb check where the hero falls, a Damage Roll where the character is knocked out, an effect which successfully mind-controls the character, and so forth. The GM decides if a particular failure is significant or not. Generally, routine failures, like missing an attack roll or suffering some lesser effect from an attack, is not significant enough to count as a setback and earn a hero die. A newly acquired hero die cannot be used to eliminate the setback that granted it. So you can’t suffer a significant failure and then spend the hero die you get to avoid failing, and you can’t get knocked out by a tough Damage Roll and spend the hero die immediately to try and wake up. You can spend hero dice you already have, but if you overcome a setback by spending a hero die you don’t gain a hero die for that setback, since it isn’t really a setback! Setbacks and Genre Awarding hero dice for setbacks isn't appropriate (nor should it be the same) for all genres of play. While it works well for four-color adventures where heroes are expected to bounce back after facing hardships to save the day, grimmer adventures might not reward characters suffering hardship with hero dice, since that's the whole point of grim and gritty adventures! Or the GM may only grant hero dice when a setback is particularly terrible (like losing a limb). Nature Often, a character's Nature can cause setbacks for the character. A hopeful character might be faced with crushing despair, causing him to crumble, or an overzealous character must come to grips with other people's differences. When a character acts according to his nature (and especially when such an action causes the character a setback), then the character should be given a hero die award. Memorable Moments There are just some times when a character says something so perfect or does something so unbelievably awesome that the whole table starts cheering. When players come together to create moments that really excite everyone, or just do such a great job at making the game fun for everyone, they should be rewarded with hero dice for their hard work. The point of the game is to have fun, after all, so you should reward players who make the game more fun! Trust Players can also exchange Hero Dice between one another, but it takes quite a bit of effort (without using an FX like Luck Control, at least). It's something that must be cultivated over many scenes, of two characters developing a mutual trust and respect for one another, enough so that the donor is willing to literally put his or her fate in the hands of another character. Needless to say, this is not something that can be done in the middle of combat. This is particularly useful for characters trying to amass enough Hero Dice to bring about a Paradigm Shift, who will need to convince other members of the group that the cause is worthwhile. Fiat Lastly, players earn hero dice when the Gamemaster “bends” the rules of the game in favor of the bad guys. The GM essentially gets to use a hero die on behalf of the villain(s), but the heroes get hero dice themselves when this happens. Some uses for GM Fiat include: * Giving a non-player character the benefit of a hero die. * Allowing a foe to escape an encounter automatically. Circumstances conspire to allow the foe to get away scot-free: debris blocks pursuit, the foe goes missing in an explosion or falls to a mysterious “death,” and so forth. * Have a character automatically suffer the worst possible effect from a particular hazard, like a trap, to help further the game. * Have the characters automatically surprised by an opponent at the start of an encounter. * Cause some additional problem for the characters. Essentially, bringing a complication into play can be seen a use of GM Fiat. A good rule of thumb with Gamemaster Fiat is any time the GM effectively grants a non-player character the benefits of a hero die or the equivalent, the affected character or characters get a hero die in exchange. This is important, since only the characters have and earn hero dice. NPCs make use of GM Fiat as the Gamemaster sees fit. The Gamemaster should make an effort to use both GM Fiat and the authority to award hero dice fairly, to make the adventure more fun and exciting. See the Gamemastering section for more information on awarding hero dice and using Gamemaster Fiat. Category:Rulebook Category:Characters Category:Hero Dice